Airbus can't deliver its planes on time and it's costing the company millions

Airbus had a 23% fall in Q1 operating profits to €501 million (£390 million; $569 million) because of delays on deliveries, according to its financial report released on Thursday.

The European aircraft manufacturer said that there had been "a serious challenge for production and customer deliveries" due to "unexpected issues" with engine propeller gearboxes on a line of A400M military planes.

Overall, Airbus' group order intake in Q1 totalled €7.2 billion less than half the €21 billion from the same period in 2015.

Net commercial aircraft orders came to 10 for the quarter, down from 101 last year.

On the plus side, group revenues were stable at €12.2 billion, up €100 million for Q1 in 2015.

Mechanical issues and delay deliveries have plagued the A400M series for a number of years. This culminated in the departure of Airbus' Military Aircraft division leader Domingo Ureña Raso in 2015, according to Flight Global.

Tom Enders, Airbus Group Chief Executive Officer, said despite the drawback orders for Airbus planes were still strong.

"It's very frustrating but we'll have to work through this with our engine partners.

"Despite these challenges we maintain our 2016 guidance and also our earnings and cash growth story for the coming years based on our strong commercial order backlog and the robust, well-resourced production ramp-ups underway."

Airbus share prices fell almost 6% on Thursday morning to €54.83 as of 1:40 PM GMT:

Airbus recently made the news for different reasons when a warning to its British workers over the cost of leaving the EU in the June 23 referendum was leaked.

"We all need to keep in the back of our minds that future investments depend very much on the economic environment in which the company operates," the letter signed by Airbus's chief operating officer Tom Williams and its UK head Paul Kahn said.